


Fever

by robertstanion



Series: Pastel! Punk McNamander [2]
Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sickfic, emetephobia tw but nothing graphic, he just chooses not to show it, john proposes, johns parents are assholes, modern day pastel!punk AU, non sexual bathing, while sick, xander cares a lot about john
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25424989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robertstanion/pseuds/robertstanion
Summary: John gets sick. Xander has to take care of them. Somehow, John ends up proposing.
Relationships: Xander Lee/John McNamara
Series: Pastel! Punk McNamander [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1841548
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Fever

**Author's Note:**

> okay so basically tw: emetephobia, but nothing graphic due to myself being an emetephobe, just sickness in general

Xander took his seat in his usual spot in the corridor, waiting for John. He hadn’t got a message that morning which, not only was it concerning, but since they’d started dating a year ago, was incredibly out of character. Yes, Xander knew about John’s extreme hate for the mobile devices, yet he always used it to text him. He usually awoke to a text every single morning from John, even after the rare event that they fought. That morning, there had been nothing. He figured John had overslept, so he hadn’t thought much about it, but, unfortunately, it had been an hour since Xander had woken up, and there was still nothing. He’d messaged John, of course he had, just to ensure that he was okay, and he hadn’t gotten a response yet.

He shifted in his jacket as he heard the bell ring, walking to his first class, which he’d usually share with John. He sat down in his seat, and, instead of John sitting beside him, Schaffer took the spare seat. “Good morning, Xander,” she said simply as she pulled out her equipment.

“Good morning, Schaffer, you wouldn’t happen to know the whereabouts of my boyfriend, would you?” He asked, biting on the end of one of his pencils.

“Indeed I would. In fact, I was at his house this morning. I read your text, he hasn’t.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“He’s sick, Xander. Bad.” She said, not bothering to hide it. “He doesn’t want you to worry about him, so he messaged me. His parents are out, again, and he just fell sick this morning. The poor thing, he can hardly stand.”

“He’s that bad…?” Xander looked over to her, watching her nod. “Did he need anything?”

“I don’t know, he could hardly talk.”

“How long has been like that? He was fine yesterday?”

“He said he felt off yesterday but didn’t think much of it.” She shrugged again. “He woke up this morning at around five, he said, and just started getting worse.”

Xander sighed as he looked at the board. “Then I’d best get his work done for him.”

“You? Doing work? For _John’s_ sake? I should have hooked you two up sooner.” She smiled and Xander rolled his eyes.

“Hey, it’s John. He doesn’t immediately take in the notes like I do. He studies, and he studies hard….” He smiled as he spoke about John. “I don’t understand how his mind works. He has to have all these diagrams and note cards. He colour coordinates everything. Yellow for key information, pink for equations or key quotes, green for themes. It’s been like that ever since I met him. It’s his routine.”

“You really love him, don’t you?” Schaffer asked quietly while she worked.

Xander smiled, chuckling. “He’s my everything. I do love him, and he knows that. And even you know I never got crushes on people, I never even thought I’d be in my position. But here I am, 18 and in a content relationship.”

“You’re still a virgin, though.”

Xander punched her arm, and she laughed. “You know for a _fact_ that that statement is incorrect.”

“You still act like a virgin.”

“Okay, Schaffer, we get the memo,” he sighed, rolling his eyes as he continued to work. He made it as clearly set out as possible, following John’s rules to study. He wrote down every piece of information he could, highlighting them accordingly. He set it all out so it was clear for him. He was definitely going round to John’s later anyway to drop it off, but more importantly to care for him.

* * *

When the bell rang that afternoon, Xander’s hand was aching with the amount of work he’d done for John _and_ himself. He grabbed his bag and rushed out of the building. He made a stop at the store just to grab some food and some drinks, the food being mainly for himself, but knowing John, he’d probably forgotten to drink. He also grabbed the meds Schaffer said he’d run low on before he’d gotten on his bike and drove away.

He made a quick stop at home to grab a spare change of clothes for both him _and_ John, telling his parents he was staying overnight. He drove away and to John’s house, throwing his bag on his shoulder, grabbing his keys. He let himself in, noticing his parents were still absent. He didn’t hear anything, so he figured John was sleeping, and quietly made his way upstairs. He opened John’s door and was met with the state of the room. He frowned. He’d never seen John _this_ sick before, and he could tell he was hurting.

He walked in the room, dropping his bag off in the corner of the room as he worked on clearing up. He picked up the trash can and walked to the bathroom to clean that up. He walked back into the room, setting it back beside John. He got to look at his boyfriend, who, in fact, was asleep. He was pale, and his hair was tied back, but the ponytail was loose, on the verge of coming out. Even asleep, he looked exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he was shivering slightly.

He moved the covers and blankets over John’s shoulders, not to the point where he was entirely covered, but it stopped the shivering fairly quickly. He pressed his hand to John’s forehead and noticed how warm he was. He tucked the loose strands behind his ear before he worked on clearing up discarded tissues and water bottles. He then put any old clothes in the washing basket. He didn’t mind. He was committed, and if it meant having to care for John when he was sick while his parents were away, he didn’t mind. He didn’t mind at all.

Once he’d cleaned up, he shut the curtains so it was dark. He knew John couldn’t sleep too well in the light, and he wanted to do the most he could while he was there. He then grabbed his bag and walked back over to the bed, sitting down and kicking his legs up. He didn’t expect John to wake up any time soon, so he went on his phone, plugging his charger into the wall, updating Schaffer every now and then when she replied to his texts.

A couple of hours later, he heard John groan from beside him. He immediately set his phone down and looked at him, watching as John woke up. The room, though dark, was as dark as it could get while the sun still shined through the curtains. It was, however, better than keeping the curtains open.

“What-?” John asked as he looked around the room, noticing everything to be spotless. He knew his parents wouldn’t have cleaned up after him as they were away, and even if they were there, they’d have made him do it. The trash can was empty and the curtains were closed. He was also tucked back in, and he distinctly remembered going to sleep with the covers halfway off of him. Schaffer said she couldn’t come round _after_ school because she had an extra curriculum on. He was left confused until he turned and saw Xander.

Xander smiled down at him as he moved to lie down, throwing his jacket on the ground. “Schaffer told me you were sick. Schaffer _also_ told me your parents weren’t here.”

“How long have you been here?” He asked, not moving any closer to Xander, his voice a whisper.

“Since school ended. Well, that’s a lie, actually. I went to the store, and then I went home, but about two and a half hours?”

“Did you clean up?”

Xander nodded and edged closer to John, holding his arms out. John reluctantly moved into Xander’s arms, leaning against his chest. “I cleaned up.”

“You saw my puke, that’s gross.” John said, his voice muffled by Xander’s shirt.

Xander laughed softly as he wrapped his arms around him. “You’re gross,” he joked as he kissed John’s hair. “How are you feeling?”

“Like shit. Light hurts, my stomach hurts, everything _hurts,”_ he complained, and Xander kissed his hair again.

“Well, I am also in a severe amount of pain. Do you want to know why?”

“Did you have another fight at school while I was away or something?” John asked, and Xander laughed again, reaching down into his bag, pulling out the notes he’d taken that day.

“Because of this,” he said and showed John who took the papers and skimmed over them.

“Xander, I would literally burst into tears right now, but my eyes hurt.” He said as he put the papers on the bedside table. “Can I marry you?” He asked and looked up to his boyfriend, who nodded.

“But when we’re older.”

“You now realise we are engaged, right?”

“Will you remember this conversation tomorrow?”

“Definitely,” John said before going even paler than before, his eyes glazing over.

“Babe?” Xander asked, and John silently turned out of Xander’s arms, grabbing the trashcan from the floor. Xander held his hair out of the way if he could, which he didn’t do a good job of, because it still got in John’s way, but he tried.

“Xander?” John asked as he put the trashcan back on the floor.

“Yep?” He asked, helping John back up.

“There’s puke in my hair.”

“I’ll go run you a shower,” he said and got up, heading to John’s bathroom, flicking on the shower.

“Xander!” John called from the other room.

“Yeah?!” Xander asked as he put the bath plug in, knowing it’d be easier to sit John down from what Schaffer said earlier.

“I can’t walk!” John reminded, and Xander smiled softly.

“I know you can’t, sweetheart!” He called as he walked back. He grabbed the change of clothes for John from his bag as well as more underwear from John’s drawer and set on the heating, the towel already on the heater. He walked back over to John and looked at him. “I’m gonna carry you in.”

“Big strong man.” John said and nodded, before being lifted up by Xander. “Big strong _fiancé.”_

“We aren’t engaged yet, sweetheart.”

“I say that we are so we must be.” John said as he was carried into the bathroom. Xander set him down on the edge of the bath, taking John’s shirt off. “Xander, honey, I did _not_ consent to this.”

Xander couldn’t help but laugh at his sick boyfriend, kissing his cheek. “You’ll get your clothes wet, and then it’ll be harder to take them off once you’re out.” Xander continued to undress John, taking his hair down, setting him down in the bath.

Xander washed John’s hair to get the vomit out of it, and ended up getting splashed a _lot_ in the process. Even when sick, John was adorable. Xander ended up taking his own shirt off so it would be easier to clean once he got back. John continued to splash around in the water, cooling down, before he was lifted out in a towel.

“I’m going to get you changed again, okay?”

“Yep. And then I’m going to sleep.”

“That’s fine with me, but do you think you can stay awake just long enough to drink something and take some meds.”

“Just for my gorgeous fiancé, of course.” John said, shutting his eyes, leaning against Xander as he was changed. Xander then lifted John back up, draining the tub, setting John back on the bed. He emptied the trash can again and bought it back before he tied John’s hair up, setting the meds and water beside him. John willingly took them before he lay down, curling close to Xander.

Xander was just finishing eating a snack before John became impatient and tugged on his arm. He smiled and laughed as he lay down, holding his arms back out to John who happily leaned into him.

“You’re probably gonna get sick, you know?”

“I won’t care.” Xander said and kissed his forehead as he shut his eyes. “I love you, John.”

“I love you too, Zee.”

* * *

On the Saturday, Xander _did_ get sick, and John had to be the one to take care of him. John kept bringing up the fact that Xander said that he wouldn’t care, when in reality, he did care. While Schaffer was in the room as well, Xander bought up the fact John had ‘proposed’ to him while _he_ was sick and they both did a double take. He smirked before he fell asleep, leaving two very confused teenagers trying to get answers from each other.

John didn’t remember, but Xander did, and he knew John was the one for him.

**Author's Note:**

> ONLY COMMENT IF YOU ARE A CONSISTENT READER OF MY FICS but kudos are appreciated by anyone thank u


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